The Dominion. THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 1912. THE COST OF LIVING.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1417, 18 April 1912, Page 4

The Dominion. THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 1912. THE COST OF LIVING.

Eighteen months ago, it may be remembered, the Labour Department conceived the 1 idea of copying a schemo devised by the Australian Government, for obtaining some actual information as to the cost of living. Accordingly the Department sent out 1800 specially made account bo'oks—the recipients being' selected from amongst married men, faming £250 a yea).' or less, who are supporting children under, say, fourteen years of age. The books were arranged so that the recipient could week by week enter up the income and ih;i expenditure, the expenditure being shown in detail—rent, food (bread, meat, milk, etc.), groceries, alcohol, clothing, fuel, and so on. Tho response to the scheme was distinctly disappointing, only sixty-nine books of any practical use being returned to the Department. The result of the inquiry is therefore of little value, but such value as it might contain has been made the most of in an article in the current Labour Journal, illustrated by a series of exhaustive tables. We are unfortunately unable to take the 09 returns sent in as a reliable guide to the household economy of the averago family of moderate means, for, as the Journal points out, and as the details of expenditure show, the people who troubled to furnish reliable returns are thrifty and careful and serious. For example, in 39 of the G9 families nothing was spent on alcohol, only 7icl. a week on tobacco (on the average), and Is. a week on amusements, while nearly 50 per cent, of the men belonged to friendly societies. What we have therefoi-o got is the average budget of the careful breadwinner, the average income of the families being £3 :is. Bd. per week.

There are differences, of course, between the expenditure of the families with under four children and those with more than four children. The annual balance ranged from a loss of £6 10s. to a saving of £10 33. Bd. in the first group, and from a saving of £6 Is. 4d. to a saving of £29 in the second group. Of more general interest, however, is the analysis of the weekly expenditure. On an average over all the £2 19s. <ld. which is the average total outlav was thus distributed: Housing, 125.; food, £l os. 2d.; clothing. Sr. 7d.; fuel and light. :is. Id.;_"other items," 15s. 6d. A comparison is made with the Australian flguiw for .corresponding incomes, and it is in-

torching to note that life for the paOple with small incomes appears to 'no easier in the Commonwealth than if, is here. The weekly expenditure 011 food in Australia is IBs. ljd. as against £l Os. 2d. in New Zealand in tho casies investigated. Of course the most fittiking feature of the inquiry is tin; re-estal)lishnient of the commonly accepted fact that rents arc higher in New Zealand than in other t'ountvics;and substantially higher in Wellington than in any of the other cities. The average rent of the houses in Dtinedin involved in the returns was 10s. 7d. j per week; in Auckland it was lis. Sjd., in Christchurch 12s. Id., and in Wellington 15s. Bd. The writer of thfr article in the Journal expresses regret that "the object sought by the Department was so little understood and realised that only a few score, workers of New Zealand came to its assistance." The regret may be generally shared, and for two reasons, th 6, first of which is the small.value of the returns that were sent in. The second cause for regret is the alarming unwillingness of the average household to keep a close record of its weekly finances even to assist in throwing' light on a problem which is the concern of all sections of the community.